Uncovering key factors for a hospital IT change strategy

Changing an Information Technology (IT) system within any organisation is a difficult and complex process. However, within the hospital setting, additional complexities make such change more difficult. These complexities include the protection of patient safety and privacy, improving the quality of the patient experience, protecting information and supporting the clinician in their medical requirements. Our research indicates that uncovering the process of hospital IT change management is not documented – making it difficult to build on evidence-based research and instill a ‘lessons learned’ approach in publicly funded hospitals. We address this gap in this paper. Using qualitative research methods we present the results of observations carried out in healthcare settings as well as twelve structured interviews with hospital staff. We employ the Kotter Change Model as a lens to understand this change process. While benefiting from the structure that Kotter’s model provides, we argue for the need to extend this model in an effort to capture the various influences of healthcare IT-enabled innovation which will, in turn, enable much needed change within hospitals. Building on our findings, we introduce a Healthcare IT Change Management Model (HIT-CMM).